Donatella Zaccaria is one of the most significant figures in Milan’s contemporary glass art scene. Trained at the Liceo Artistico and the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, she began her journey into the world of glass in 1979, fascinated by the expressive potential of this luminous and iridescent material. The intense colors, the play of light, and the transparency of glass captivated her immediately, prompting her to study ancient and modern glassmaking techniques in depth.
Influenced by the master Louis Comfort Tiffany, inventor of the eponymous copper leaf technique, and by great 20th-century artists such as Chagall, Matisse, Braque, and Léger — who masterfully fused painting and glass— Donatella Zaccaria transforms her drawings into unique works of stained glass and mosaics. Her Milanese workshop is a place where tradition and innovation meet: she uses fine blown, opalescent, iridescent, and iridescent glass to create custom pieces.
The techniques employed are varied and refined. For stained glass windows, she employs the classic lead technique, the sophisticated Tiffany technique, kiln-fired grisaille painting, glass fusion, and glass collage. For mosaics, she employs the traditional Byzantine technique, working with enamels, gold and silver leaf, marble, stone, and alabaster. Her creations include sliding and hinged doors, windows, partition panels, suspended ceilings, domes, floors, wall coverings, fireplaces, furniture, mirrors, frames, lamps, and even jewelry.
In addition to designing and creating new works, Donatella is passionate about restoring historic and sacred stained glass windows, mosaics, and glass art objects, contributing to the preservation of Italy’s artistic heritage.
She has collaborated with leading architects and design studios such as Alessandro Mendini, Claudio Salocchi, Alessandro Menna, Arch. Salvati, and Studio M.O.R.S.A., creating works both in Italy and abroad.
Each of her works represents an excellent example of the fusion of art and high craftsmanship.
These are not simple objects, but unique creations tailored to the client, where design, choice of materials, and attention to detail interact harmoniously with the architecture and surrounding environment. Light becomes the protagonist: it filters, breaks down, colors spaces, and transforms the ordinary into poetry.
In parallel to her artistic practice, Donatella Zaccaria practices anthroposophical art therapy, using art as a tool for personal transformation, self-knowledge, and inner growth, demonstrating how glass can be not only an aesthetic vehicle but also a therapeutic and relational one.
Through her work, Donatella Zaccaria continues to keep alive the ancient Milanese and Italian tradition of artistic glass, innovating it with contemporary sensibility and a profound attention to light, color, and beauty.
Her unique works tell a story of passion, mastery, and respect for a material as ancient as humanity itself.
www.arteterapiadonatellazaccaria.it